Problem:
Game film is easily digitized on a Macintosh computer using a digital camera, iMovie and a Firewire cable. Game film clips are created automatically, sensing the push of the pause button. The digital clips that are created are clear and crisp to the eye on any Macintosh computer. However, they lose some of their clarity when moved directly to any Windows PC computer.
Solution:
"Flatten" the video before watching it on the PC. Copy any data that was previously entered automatically.
Automatically Move Data ... How?
When coaches use portable drives to move game film around, they are unknowingly moving the data around as well. Data is transferred anytime a drive is plugged in and the game film is watched. However, NO HARM IS DONE. Data from a portable drive cannot replace specific data from a host machine.Example #1:
You have already broke down the game film OHSvsFHS06 and entered all the down, distance, yard line and hash mark information. You pass the portable drive to another coach. He watches the film and notices that you have made a mistake on one of the plays. He decides you have clicked on the wrong down. He makes the correction and hands the drive back to you. You take the drive and attach it to your computer (Mac or PC) and choose the game film for breakdown. Finding the clip where the mistake was made you notice that no change was made. Even though he made the change on his computer the change will NOT appear on yours. You will need to make the change by hand.Example #2:
After passing the game film OHSvsFHS06 to another coach he enters all the formation, play and defensive information. He returns the portable drive to you and after attaching the drive you choose to break down the same game film. As you look at each clip you notice that all the formation, play and defensive data has been added.Example #3:
After passing the game film OHSvsFHS06 on a portable drive to another coach he adds several new formations, plays and defensive fronts to the game film. He also adds notes and tags to clips that you had already analyzed. He returns the portable drive to you and after attaching the drive you choose to break down the same game film. As you look at a clip you notice that new formation information has been added to the formation button, and new tags have been added to the tag window.
The downside ... time:
The process of flattening the game film takes time. The time of course varies upon the speed of the computer's processor. Processors have gotten much faster these last few years, and in general, the newer the computer the faster the processor. But even the fastest processors can spend up to an hour "flattening" a game film.
The downside ... film size:
"Flattened" game film is about twice as large as regular, digital game film. Mac files consist of two parts called "forks." The "data fork" contains the data which would normally be stored in the file on other operating systems. The "resource fork" contains a collection of attributes including program segments, icon information and other parametric data. Flattening a Mac file collapses these forks into one file which can be handled by other operating systems.
The steps:
Click on the links below to download each of three documents detailing the process of sharing game films with a small group of coaches using portable drives and flattened game films.